CRIMEAN PARLIAMENT REFUSED TO CANCEL THE DECISION TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Pan Armenian News
Despite the pressure from official Kiev Crimean lawmakers stayed
close to their principles.
On June 22 the Supreme Council of Crimea again discussed the question
of Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey. It should be reminded that on
May 19 the Crimean parliament passed a resolution proclaiming April
24 as the day to commemorate the victims of Armenian Genocide. Under
the pressure from the outside the leadership of the legislative organ
came up with an initiative to cancel the resolution. By the majority
of votes the deputies rejected the proposal.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The bill on announcing April 24 the Memory Day of
the victims of Armenian genocide was introduced by the deputy from the
Congress of Russian communities of Crimea Sergey Shuvaynikov. 59 out
of 62 deputies of the Crimean parliament voted for the bill. However,
immediately after the voting the chairman of the Supreme Rada of the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea Boris Deich announced that he would
not sign the resolution since it could have undesirable political
consequences and official Kiev started to openly put pressure upon
the deputies. The foreign ministry of Ukraine gave to understand that
they would make efforts to achieve cancellation of the decision of
Crimean lawmakers at any price. Unable to bear the pressure, during
the seating of the presidium of the Supreme Council deputy Shuvaynikov
reluctantly suggested to make corrections in the document and to
qualify the events of 1915 as “tragedy”. By the majority of votes the
presidium rejected the proposal and decided to leave the document
as it is, without putting the issue of changing the formulation of
the resolution on the agenda of the parliament. Nevertheless speaker
Boris Deich did not give up the idea to achieve the inclusion of the
issue on the agenda. He decided to pursue the initiative directly at
the plenary session.
In the case in question the head of the legislative organ of the
autonomy realized the will of official Kiev that actively flirts
with Baku opposing itself to Yerevan. Ukraine and Azerbaijan are
partner countries in GUAM but allied obligations do not demand open
neglection towards Armenia with which Ukraine has ancient historical
connections. It is quite obvious that it was Ilham Aliev that persuaded
Ukrainian leaders to put pressure on Crimea. During the meeting with
the speaker of Supreme Rada of Ukraine Vladimir Litvin the President of
Azerbaijan demanded to do everything possible to make Crimean lawmakers
reconsider their decision concerning the recognition of Armenian
genocide. Ankara on its turn also made use of diplomatic instruments,
including even the resources of Crimean-Tatar community. Mejlis –
the illegal “parliament” of Crimean Tatars spoke out against the
resolution. The leaders of the Azerbaijan community of Kiev even
started discussing the necessity of Ukrainian parliament to pass a
bill, announcing the resolution invalid.
Arguing the necessity of canceling the resolution, the speaker of the
parliament Boris Deich mentioned that passing of the resolution had
aroused dangerous international resonance. However the arguments of his
opponents turned to be more persuasive. The pro-Armenian atmosphere in
the Crimean parliament was formed yet when the vice-speaker of Supreme
Council of the autonomy was Anushavan Danielyan – current Primer
Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh. In his speech during the debates deputy
Vladimir Kazarin said, “I don’t understand what has the president of
Azerbaijan to do with our decision”. Kazarin reminded that Armenians
have lived on the territory of Crimea for more than 1500 years. “They
have had a tremendous input in the development of the peninsula. The
history of Crimea is inseparably linked to the names of hundreds
of outstanding Armenians who have become dear for Crimea”, the
deputy said. The head of the Crimean organization of the Republican
party of Ukraine Alexander Gross also supported Kazarin and said,
“No parliament in the world has ever cancelled passed resolutions
for the commemoration of the victims of Armenian genocide. This can
be a sad precedent. We have to account for our own decisions…”
As a result, the initiative of the speaker was put to the vote and
received only 13 votes. The issue is closed. From now on, every year
on April 24 Crimea will officially commemorate the victims of Armenian
genocide in Ottoman Turkey.
25.06.2005, “PanARMENIAN Network” analytical department